Insomniac
by CloudStranger
Summary: Similar to my other story still not finished, I know, one of the other people collaborating had their account locked so we can't talk. Explores an Aelphaba in the depths of insanity.
1. Prologue

Aelphaba had been deteriorating for a long while, even before Liir was born things had started to crumble. It started small, just locking away in her study for increasingly extended periods of time, she would go for walks when she though everybody asleep, though the odd night Little Elphie and her sister Gabbie would hear their mother leave and watch out their bedroom window together to see where the older verdant woman would go to so late at night. Then she would start to get lost in her thoughts, paying less and less attention to what was around her.

Eventually, she would start muttering to herself, at voices nobody else was hearing, or reply to what seemed a one sided conversation. Slowly this developed into screams, and when she did sleep the night terrors and hallucinations from a past most foul at these terrors she did wake. After some time she stopped sleeping, instead passing out when her body refused to function any more. The insomnia reached dangerous levels, willing sleep to come only to have learned should she close her eyes the horrors that plagued her would return steadfast. She lashed out during her episodes, striking the forms around her as the voices started to grow louder and louder, more malicious in their words when they were not screaming. The agony she heard was not short of that from her own screams as a young adolescent, or even those torn from Aelphaba's throat during the rape which had lead to her pregnancy with the youngest Thropp.

The nightmare of her past had been surfacing for a long while now.


	2. In The Dead of Night

A pungent stench of iron, salt and sweat hung in the air as the figure stumbled into the living quarters early one dawn. Paths of the still liquid blood trailed down Aelphaba's fraid attire, through her fingers that fell parted, and onto the carpet as she trudged inside. She had not meant to do it of course, the mother had only wanted to be left in peace - she only wanted to sleep.

This rest never came anymore, only screams and whispers of enticing propositions to yield freedom at last consumed the night until finally she fell unconscious from her body's inability to keep pace her mind and thoughts. She had been out all night, walking through the desolate streets she knew so well in attempt to tire herself and escape the thoughts, temptations that lay scattered around her study.

It was so simple, they lead her right to the victim. The voices that screamed, that held promises over her head, who caused the self infliction and jeered at her weakness. They could be kind when they wanted, her special friends. They could cheer her on and give her confidence to take the vials in her study when she would hesitate in thought, considering whether it would be better not to pour the foul tasting liquids of multiple colours down her throat. So she listened this night, they cheered at the first blow, yelled and screamed as the life left the young one's eyes. Bursting the veins as she dug in her fingers; squeezing and clawing at the victim's throat, gouging their eyes and beating to a rhythm that all but existed as the blood made impact. The red contrasted against Aelphaba's verdant skin, almost a work of art being formed.

Even long after the cries of pain stopped, post-howls of agony, and the body lay limp she kept beating and clawing and ripping. A most heinous act of homicide was committed. And finally, as she hit the floor, sleep consumed her. They had delivered, this time round.

Galinda woke up from a nightmare shaking... That couldn't have been true, not Fae. She shook her head to clear it and found the space next to her empty.

"No..." She whispered. This had happened too often before. She quickly dressed in her hotel room she had rented out, hoping to get there in time. The blonde burst into their dorm room, witnessing Aelphaba laying motionless on the floor of her bedroom, exhausted from events that had unfolded. Dreamless slumber brought peaceful a night that the green woman could only have craved for so long. She lay in a pool of the red trophy, a sickening reward of her misdeed.

"Ozma preserve us..." The slight blonde knelt beside her green lover, pulling Aelphaba's head into her lap. "Fae? Aelphie? Aelphaba?!"

The distressed calls had not gone unnoticed by the youngest of the Thropp sisters. Elphaba shot up in the early hours of dawn. She'd thought she'd heard screaming, but she pushed the thought out of her head. Elphie could feel a stinging sweat develop on her forehead, and she got up out of bed to go get a towel, but froze when she saw the two women.

Galinda was close to tears, shaking Aelphaba's shoulders gently. "No! Nonononono..." Her breath caught and a tear rolled down her face. Her fiancee slowly stirred, a glassy expression in her eyes as though she could not really see the blonde before her. The past several hours were a blur of indistinct noises and ringing in her ears. She looked up at Galinda, squinting with the slightest of smiles. "I slept, Glin. They promised me I would sleep, and I did." A verdant hand reached up and caressed the smooth pale cheek above. She reached a shaking hand up and held it over Aelphaba's.

"What happened to you..?"

A deranged grin met the question, responding even before the words left the green woman's mouth. "They helped me sleep, that's all. They took me to them, they cheered me on." Wild eyes flashed as the memories flooded back, images of the battered skull and empty sockets surfacing once more in momentary flashes. "It was so easy..." Galinda's eyes widened with concern.

"Did you fall and hit your head?" She ran a cool hand over the green woman's forehead. As her fiancee ran her hand over Aelphaba's warm skin, a cackle rang out through the silent room. 'Fall she says' jeered the voices in Aelphaba's mind, 'is she so blind?' They jested and laughed, resonating off the hallowed walls though only heard by the green woman's ears once again, as is the case every time her tormentors speak. Aelphaba ran a wet thumb over Galinda's cheekbone, smearing a maroon mark across it in the process. "I was not the one who fell tonight, my love" she murmured in reply, "and it seems we have an audience with us tonight."

Elphie shook her head. "Mommy, Mama's been acting weird for a while... She keeps saying that these voices talk to her.." Galinda's face couldn't have been paler as she struggled to keep her voice steady.

"Elphie, wait outside dearest? Mommy's going to get Mama into bed and then you can fill me in, okay?" Little Elphaba shifted a little, feeling rather nervous. She nodded and turned on her heels, heading into the other room.

The mother's eyes closed once more, a pained yet somehow peaceful look played across her features. Things started to clear, and questions arose. How could she have acted so around her eight year old daughter? Smashing glass, sending her fist through mirrors and screaming nonsensities seemed like a part of somebody elses life, but alas it was hers. Right now, all she wanted to do was sleep and the bed Galinda was offering appealed more than ever. Galinda carefully eased Aelphaba to her feet, her small frame surprisingly strong. The blonde's fiancee steadily rose to her feet, somewhat surprised how the smaller woman so easily lifted her. True, she was hardly weighty, however height would make the job harder wouldn't it? These thoughts easily swept aside as the struggle to keep her eyelids open long enough for sense of direction worsened.

The blonde gently eased her lover down on the bed. "Here you go, my sweet..." Galinda tucked her fiancee in all the way up to her chin and kissed her forehead.


End file.
